The Marlins Part Ways With Hanley Ramirez

This season has been very disappointing for the Miami Marlins. They showed that they are essentially giving up on hopes for the playoffs this season by trading some of their top stars. Rebuilding mode has already started when this team was supposed to be ready to contend this year. They have a strong focus on pitching in their trades this week, that is a spot they definitely need help in.

The first trade came on Tuesday when the Marlins sent Omar Infante and Anibal Sanchez to the Detroit Tigers. Infante has had a decent season thus far and had led the team to numerous victories. Sanchez has been with the club for a few years and been a reliable starter at times. Sanchez had a rough start to the season but leveled out towards the summer. The Marlins received top-rated pitching prospect Jacob Turner from the Tigers in the deal.

Hanley Ramirez(Getty Images)

On Wednesday the Marlins traded away a star they coveted very heavily just a couple of years ago. Going into this season no one suspected that the Marlins would not finish the season with Hanley Ramirez. The rumors started floating around last week that the team was looking at offers for the former N.L. batting champion and multiple time All Star. The Marlins made a deal with the Los Angeles Dodgers to send Ramirez and pitcher Randy Choate to California. The Marlins received pitcher Nathan Eovaldi and a minor leaguer in the deal.

Hanley Ramirez will never be forgotten by the franchise. He was acquired from the Boston Redsox in the 2005 trade that sent Josh Beckett to Boston. The Marlins had coveted and groomed Ramirez as their big star of the future. He had a few season where he played really well and even one a batting title. But the last couple of years has seen Ramirez numbers drop significantly. The Marlins owe a lot of credit to Ramirez for helping them get a new stadium built in Miami for the club. The team signed Ramirez to a 6 year deal a few years ago to show the city of Miami tax payers that they were committed to building a contender. A lot has changed in the last few years and Ramirez is no longer a Miami Marlin.

The Marlins have got to start building a team built for the future. The team has been out of contention for too long. A lot of the blame falls on pitching but really its everything. The Marlins franchise should have been contenders this year but have shown themselves not to be a team that can contend. The decision to trade some of their top talent is questionable
but at least they are receiving top young pitching talent for the future. The city of Miami will lose their patience with the team really quickly if they don’t get a team on the field that not only looks like contenders but play like contenders.

2 responses to “The Marlins Part Ways With Hanley Ramirez”

I don’t think Ozzie Guillen hepled this club either. He alienated several of his latino players after his pro-Castro rants, not to mention the huge Cuban -American community in Miami. Whatever changes they make, one can only hope that he won’t be joining the team next Spring. He’s a distraction ans although not the ONLY reason for the Marlins under-achieving this season, he’s a part of their demise.